


Lost Cause

by doctortrekkie



Series: Break Me Down and Build Me Up [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Chrom!Inigo, Gaius!Severa, Gen, I write oneshots when I have writer's block, Inigo Owain and Severa are 13 in this fic, Libra!Noire, Lon'qu!Owain, Pre-Canon, aka that one time Owain messed with Goetia, bad timeline, for reference:, well this will probably be a two- or three-shot but it still counts I think
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-13 05:08:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16010927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctortrekkie/pseuds/doctortrekkie
Summary: Two princes, tired of being cooped up in the palace and eager to prove themselves, secretly take on what should have been a typical search-and-retrieve mission. To their dismay, it goes terribly wrong—and since no one knows where they are, it's going to take desperate measures to get out alive.(Takes place three years before the beginning of Whatever It Takes. Also known as Owain's Infamous Goetia Incident.)





	Lost Cause

_ My head, is holding on to all those things you said, you taught me to be strong and get through it, the mist of darkness, in my head... _

Leather creaked as a boy adjusted his saddle, ignoring his trembling hands as he did up the cinch. His mount turned to fix him with a soft brown gaze and he gave the gelding an absent pat.

“You ready, Owain?”

“Nearly,” the boy called back to his cousin. He took his horse’s reins in one hand, the other snatching the lantern that hung on the wall beside him. He’d barely made it two steps out of the stall when he heard a yelp.

“Agh, get that thing a little closer, would you? I’m not  _ completely  _ blinded yet!”

“Sorry,” Owain mumbled, lowering the lantern. Inigo dropped the hand he’d been using the shield his eyes, leaving the Brand that graced his right to glint dully in the remaining light.

A small, sensible part of him chided him, telling him this was stupid and reckless. Crossing Ylisstol in the dead of a midwinter’s night would be risky enough as it was for two boys who had only just laid claim on the title of ‘teenagers.’ That was without accounting for the undead Risen prowling outside the city, waiting for some weak point to give way and give them free reign to ravage as they pleased.

_ What would Mother have to say?  _ his conscience had the audacity to ask.

_ Mother doesn’t have anything to say!  _ Owain told his conscience.  _ And she never will again! _

He turned sharply from Inigo, hoping he sufficiently disguised his shuddering breath as he swiped the sleeve of his cloak over his eyes. So what if it was risky? Wars were won by risks and the heroes willing to take them, and they needed to win this war.

_ He was going to be that hero. _

“Hey,” Inigo said over the clop of hooves as he trotted his own horse a few strides to catch up. “You okay?”

Luckily, before Owain had to compose an answer theatrical enough to be convincing, another voice reached them. “You two are going to be in So. Much. Trouble.”

“You’re only in trouble if you get caught, my darling!”

Severa gave Inigo a glare that by all rights should have melted the residual snowflakes clinging to her ginger hair. “Well, in case you haven’t noticed, we caught you.”

Inigo brushed his fringe off his forehead, giving her a smile that might have actually been charming if it was coming from a grown man and not a scrawny thirteen-year-old who was still shorter than the girl he was trying woo. Owain cut him off before he dug any deeper.

“Surely, though, if you were indeed aware of our intentions you would have reported us directly to She Who Holds Us Captive?”

“Hey, don’t talk about my sister like that,” Inigo interjected.

“I’m just pointing out that Lucina’s the one who won’t let us leave the castle,” Owain shot back. He pinched the handle of the lantern with his last two fingers and thumb so he could make air quotes. “‘Risking the remnant of the royal bloodline.’”

“You know, exactly what you’re doing right now,” Severa said.

“H-he’s right, though,” put in another soft voice. Both boys jumped as a head full of long blonde hair, trimmed by a fur-lined black cloak, peeped out from behind Severa.

“Gawds, did you have to tell them that, Noire?” she demanded. “I was going to let them squirm a while longer!”

“Hi, Noire,” Inigo said, flashing a grin again.

“So… you’ve come to join us?” Owain ventured.

“Duh,” Severa said with a roll of your eyes. “Someone has to keep you from getting killed. Any why else would I have brought the mouse?”

Noire’s went wide and suspiciously wet, before she reached into the pocket of her cloak and her demeanor shifted instantly. “You  _ DARE speak of me in such a way, mortal? I’ll _ —”

Severa twisted and clapped one hand over the other girl’s mouth, using the other to grab Noire’s wrist and wrench it away from her charmed talisman. “Are you trying to get us caught?” she hissed.

Noire’s face melted back into timidity. “S-sorry.” She cleared her throat as Severa let go of her. “It’s just. Um. Since we’re going to my mother’s house… I thought I might be able to help you find what you’re looking for.”

The two boys exchanged glances, and Inigo shrugged. “The more, the merrier.” He made a face. “Plus, if we do get caught, there’ll be more of us to clean the entire stables with toothpicks or whatever other horribleness Lucina comes up with.”

“Y-you don’t think she’d really...?” Noire asked with wide eyes.

“Let’s be honest,” Inigo said. “On a scale of dumb things, sneaking out in the middle of the night to try to find secret research that might not even actually exist and is only vaguely referenced in a single unsent letter from Robin to Tharja is…” He held his hand up as high as he could reach, “...pretty up there.”

“On the other hand,” Owain pointed out with forced cheer, “if we do succeed, we shall be lauded as the greatest heroes since… well, the Hero-King himself.” He pointed at Inigo. “So do jot that down.”

“Whatever,” Severa said, striding over to Owain’s horse. “Give me a leg up.”

Startled, he blinked before complying, boosting the redhead up in the saddle before he scrambled up behind her. To the side, Inigo did the same to Noire.

Owain took a steadying breath as they set off. No more would Owain Dark watch this war from behind high castle walls.

He was going to win it himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for the recent lack of updates on the main fic. School is back in session and has once again decided to kick my scrawny behind when I'm down, and the next few chapters contain a lot of content I need to get just right... so my perfectionism has turned into a nasty case of 'this sucks so I just WON'T WRITE IT ALL!' (Yeah... I'm smart.) Anyways, after procrastinating away the first half of my weekend, I was doing some brainstorming about the whole 'that time Owain should have died because he decided to mess around with dark magic' and came up with the actual circumstances that caused it. So WIT may not get an update for a little while, but I will hopefully have this short fic out relatively quickly in the meantime!


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